Barriers to doctors successfully delivering leadership in the NHS.

Leadership will be essential to deliver the changes outlined in the and to ensure that the efficiencies identified in the Carter Review are delivered. To achieve the scale of savings outlined in these papers, while maintaining the quality and safety of care, all NHS staff will need to be involved in and to take the lead in identifying wasteful practice and procurement and, more importantly, to become the agents of change and architects of innovative and high-quality practice. However, many barriers exist to successful leadership by doctors in the NHS.

Perspectives on clinical leadership: a qualitative study exploring the views of senior healthcare leaders in the UK.

Introduction: Clinicians are being asked to play a major role leading the NHS. While much is written on about clinical leadership, little research in the medical literature has examined perceptions of the term or mapped the perceived attributes required for success.

Objective: To capture the views of senior UK healthcare leaders regarding their perception of the term `clinical leadership' and the cultural backdrop in which it is being espoused.

Training and education in healthcare leadership: Is it time for a NHS healthcare academy?

In his report into Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, Robert Francis QC suggested the need for a physical NHS 'staff college' to support the strengthening of clinical leadership in the NHS. We present qualitative research data from a series of semistructured interviews with senior healthcare leaders in the UK that highlights their thoughts on the state of both clinician's managerial and leadership knowledge and training in the UK and the opportunities and challenges that a 'staff college' model would present using the UK Armed Forces Defence Academy as an existing public sector model. While progress has been made towards strengthening leadership and management training for NHS staff since this research was performed, this research suggests the need for a more inclusive, corporate, multi-disciplinary approach to delivery, pooling the existing expertise and ensuring a whole workforce approach to the corporate NHS agenda.